I've been reading Bishop Spong's book, A New Christianity for a New World, and it's affected me more profoundly than I realized.
Spong writes about the death of Theism, and how Christianity must adapt and survive in a world where no rational person could really believe in a literal, leper-healing, dead-reviving, evil-smiting Living God. He says that the stories in the New Testament were fine during the 900's, but that they are no longer appropriate for the 21st century.
He made me realize that I agree--and that this agreement is really no small thing.
For years now I've been an agnostic, and proud of it. All those fools could worship based on some old book, or deny the possibility of a god based on their own pessimism, but I'd keep a rational, open mind. Maybe Fuzzy was right, and there is nothing higher than what we have here. Maybe Jake is right, and consuming the Body and the Blood will save out souls.
I no longer believe this. Spong convinced me that, while I remain an agnostic, I am completely within my rights to disbelieve in some things. I don't believe in a literal Christ, who walked on water and is watching me from the clouds, hoping I'll get myself baptized. That is simply not true.
As a metaphor for how to live one's life Christianity is, undoubtedly, a pretty good way to go. As a poetic description of a Higher Power (what Spong calls the "Ground of all Being", and what Lao Tzu calls the "Tao") it might or might not be accurate.
So if Bishop Spong made me less godly (for the first time in my life, I actually reject certain religious teachings as False) he also made me more godly (having rejected those teachings, I feel like I take the whole concept of God much more seriously now).
There was once a time when I would debate dogma with Catholics, asking questions about why unbaptized children would go to Purgatory, or whatever. Now, though, that feels like arguing with Tony about why third level clerics can only cast "Detect Evil" once a day, or whatever. Just silly rules for a made-up system, not fundamental Statements about the Truth of the World.